Isobel Asks The Internet

XVIII - The Checkout Line

I had to work on the checkouts at work and fought with SO MANY customers! Were my actions justified?

Hey everyone!

So, the other day at work (I am the part-time head manager of a supermarket while studying for a degree in physics) I was looking at the shift timetables and I realised that we had barely anyone on the checkouts that morning! The deputy manager Marceline usually arranges cover in times of low staff levels, however she was away for a few days at a melon-picking retreat with the plant-based water aerobics society she was a member of. This meant that I would have to pick up the slack! 

I looked around the store to see who could work on the tills with me. The manager of the fashion department, Sandy, is SO good at cashier work; she doesn't even speak to the customers, she just scans all of their shopping as fast as possible and makes them leave. I made sure to grab her. Because it was a Monday morning, I knew from various data analyses I had carried out that customers would be more interested in grocery purchases than browsing homeware, so I also picked Becky and Ursula from the enamelware department to come and help out. I also moved a till on to the complaints desk, so that Britney could lend us a hand too. 

At first, it went AMAZINGLY. Due to my reputation in town, the customers were all very pleased to see me working on the tills and have a chance to find out about all the new things in my life. Everyone was so nice. I had just got my nails done, so I had to hold each item that the customers wanted to buy between both of my palms and throw it into their bag or shopping cart. 

A couple of hours into the shift, the store had quietened down, so I was giving Ursula some constructive criticism on the Harry Styles librarian AU fanfiction she had emailed me earlier in the day, when I noticed two ladies walk towards my checkout. I said "good morning!!" to them breezily. The older lady smiled and said "oh hello!" very cheerily, however the younger women with her was like "omg mum". I could tell they were from out of town. Also the younger woman was pregnant and had a small baby in a pushchair.

Because they were customers, I scanned their shopping. While I was doing this, the daughter interrupted me SO rudely and said "what the FUCK are you with our shopping". I wasn't really sure wtf she was talking about so I just ignored this. I looked at what they were buying and it was mostly stuff like milk formula and baby food, so I turned to the older woman and said "she's a bit old for this now, don't you think?", inclining my head towards the disgruntled young lady. The older woman laughed SO hard but her daughter was fuming. 

After I rang up all of their items and told them the total cost, the pregnant woman grabbed a promotional leaflet that we put out MONTHS ago and told me her items should have been on special offer. I told her that the offers had expired, so she literally grabbed a bunch of coins and threw them SO hard at the counter. I was not going to tolerate this aggression, so I grabbed the bags out of their trolley (with my palms) and voided their transaction. The pregnant woman was like "but everywhere else is out of formula", so I told her that she'd probably fucked up her baby's future anyway.

At the same time as the pregnant woman was arguing rudely with me, I was trying to help her mum (who was still being SO nice and polite) apply for our rewards program. I was registering her details when the daughter snatched the card and screamed "wtf do NOT apply for it" so loud. I wasn't going to take any more of their shit, so I closed my till and called Nigella to handle the situation. I don't even call security anymore; I just ask Nigella to take care of angry customers because I know that's the kind of work she's passionate about.

I went back to my office, and glanced at the security cameras to see Nigella tackle the pregnant woman, and they both fell to the floor. It was a relief to see the situation was being dealt with competently. I decided to look at the schedules for tomorrow, and saw that we were SO short staffed tomorrow and needed to get a cashier to work. I walked back down to the checkouts and went over to Becky who was scanning a customer's loyalty card and asked her if she could work tomorrow. Before she could even respond, the woman she was serving was all like "excuse me, do you think you could wait until the cashier has finished serving me before distracting her?" 

I was FURIOUS.

I shoved Becky out of the way, and grabbed all of the woman's shit and voided her transaction (she was spending so much money). I then took her loyalty card from Becky and looked her up on the system and DELETED all of her rewards points. While I was doing this, I was yelling at her so loud that I am the head manager and I can talk to my employees whenever I wanted, and furthermore how dare she dehumanise my employees by not referring to them by their names. She looked SHOCKED but I kept saying that I was cancelling her transaction and that it was disgraceful that she thought she could just stomp in here and take all of her frustrations about her own miserable life out on my staff. 

The woman told me that I was crazy and marched towards the complaints desk and I thought "good fucking luck". I could see that Britney was writing down her complaint, so I waited until she had finished before waltzing over to the desk. The lady looked APPALLED to see me again, but I just ignored her and said "hey Brit!!! I can take those complaints now!!!". Britney told me that the only complaint in the pile was the one she had just finished, so I took it and threw it in the recycling bin before locking eyes with the unhinged woman and doing a chef's kiss. Her jaw plummeted halfway to the counter! 

THEN when I was walking back, I saw Tricia who works in the fresh produce section. Tricia had been on a creative writing retreat for the last three weeks, so I wanted to say hi to her and welcome her back to the store (especially since so much has changed recently). We chatted for SO long, and she was telling me about how many customers had been rude to her on her first day back. I said to her "omfg, dealing with customers is like trying to have a conversation with a herd of cows, they're so fucking stupid", except I accidentally said it SO loud and all the customers around us heard. This one rabid specimen slid up to me and said "I think I'd like to speak to a manager" but I turned to her and said "I AM the manager" and shoved my ID badge so close to her face. 

I turned to walk away, but she grabbed my wrist; Nigella had gone home at this point so I called security and told them there was a customer that required immobilisation. The woman SCREAMED so loud and let go, and I told her to get the fuck out of my store. Because I have an excellent reputation in town, everyone around knew that I was in the right. I decided then to (finally) go back to my office.

Was this the best way to deal with customers? Do you think I was too soft on them?